Voters Elect Two Area Tradesmen to City Council Seats

Two Cleveland building trades union members successfully ran campaigns and were elected to seats on city council in their respective hometowns.

John Kulju, a Field Representative for Tapers Local 505 and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, won his bid to become an At-Large councilman in Seven Hills.

Brian Poindexter, a member of Ironworkers Local 17, was re-elected to his At-Large Council seat in Brook Park.In his first bid for public office, Kulju received 1,723 votes, or 20.65 percent, according to unofficial results. He was the second highest vote getter in a race consisting of five candidates, with the top three elected to the Council. Kulju, who has over 35 years of experience in the drywall industry, described his campaign experience as humbling, but now he is looking forward to getting to work. “I can bring my construction experience to office to help out the city,” he said. 

While this was Kulju’s first campaign, Poindexter, an Iron Worker since 2007, brought a bit of experience to his re-election campaign after completing his first term on City Council.

He was also in a race against four other candidates seeking three at-large seats. Poindexter received the most votes (2,118), which was 26.84 percent of the overall total, according to unofficial results. He credited Brook Parks’s high density of union membership for voting and said the city deserves to have a proponent of labor unions on city council. He hopes to make Brook Park one of the most technologically advanced municipalities in the Cleveland area as his signature issue was to introduce a technology committee to the city, which will work to pass and enact legislation aimed at bringing Brook Park to the technological forefront in the Greater Cleveland area.

John Kulju

Brian Poindexter